Civic Participation: Trends, Issues and Contexts. The article focuses on the development of civic participation in Slovakia after the fall of communism in 1989, emphasizing the context of the dominant political culture and the challenges of transition. The authors base their analysis on rich empirical material from representative sociological surveys conducted from 1994 to 2010. Examining trends in the degree of citizens’ engagement in various forms of participation as well as the changes in their potential for future participation, the authors present an empirical typology of the modes of civic participation. They explore the overall and mean rates of participation amongst various socio-demographic and socio-economic groups, which allows them to illustrate the unequal distribution of civic participation in Slovak society. The analysis demonstrates that active citizenship is more frequent amongst individuals who have a stronger interest in politics, who generally are more trusting, and who identify more strongly both with the goals of deliberative democracy and the economic and political changes after 1989. Civic participation is more widespread among individuals associated with various types of voluntary organizations. In the last part of the article, the authors pay particular attention to trends in and determinants of voter turnout after 1990.
Sociológia 2010, Vol. 42 (No. 5: 447-491)

Development of Active Citizenship in School Environment. The paper outlines the issues of civic education within the context of contemporary European trends, educational initiatives and approaches to civic education. From this perspective, school curricular documents, their changes carried out during the political transformation of the Slovak society as well as students’ achievements in the IEA Civic Education Study are analyzed and evaluated. The research is focused on studying how the school graduates of several generations reflect and evaluate the impact of school civic education and on indentifying the potential stimuli and sources of active civic participation. The results show the minimal influence of school on the current civic attitudes of respondents regardless of their age. From among other possible sources of active citizenship investigated, it was the effect of membership in social organizations and in informal social structures that was assessed as the most significant.
Sociológia 2010, Vol. 42 (No 5: 492-515)

Goals of Civic Deliberative Democracy and its Support in Slovakia. The paper describes the analysis of the part of the representative research that monitors dis/agreement with the basic goals and presumptions of civic deliberative democracy. The statistical analysis indicates that the support for deliberative democracy is generally widespread among Slovak population; however, the respondents with higher cultural capital (higher education, bilingualism, use of internet) and with higher self-evaluation of understanding politics are those whose support is the most probable. On the other hand, an authoritarian syndrome that is understood as the interiorized obstacle to political participation (an authoritarian subordination, a lack of political information, political helplessness and political indifference) occurs more probably among the respondents with lower cultural capital and lower socio-economic status. The results are discussed in relation to the thesis that deliberative democracy is not the appropriate instrument for deepening democracy because the deliberative capital and motivation to participate are not equally distributed in population.
Sociológia 2010, Vol. 42 (No. 5: 516-547)

Non-Participation of Survey Respondents: Sexual and Bodily Otherness on the Margin of Public Interest. The paper presents a non-conventional approach to non/participation in survey-respondents’ behaviour. The topic of the analysis is attitudes to certain minorities in the population – sexual minorities, people with body and mental handicap. These sexual and bodily forms of otherness are being discussed in the conceptual framework of cultural and intimate citizenship. Empirical data indicate a significantly higher incidence of respondents’ refusal to answer questions concerning conditions, chances and needs of citizens with above mentioned otherness – as compared to assessing conditions of other minorities; simultaneously, claims for help from the society are significantly less acknowledged for these groups. A demographic profile of the most frequently „refusing“ respondents is characteristic by certain education, age and residence size. Results are discussed in the context of the overall value-background in Slovakia, its political development, and current discourses on sexual and bodily otherness.
Sociológia 2010, Vol. 42 (No. 5: 548-563)

Polarized Discourses Relating to Topical Social Issues. The paper analyzes function, diversity, and the evolution of social norms and moral intuitions that play an important role in the process of important societal issues judgement. On the basis of the results from a representative survey it analyzes responses to seven polarized discourses relating to the topical social issues. Concretely: 1. large vs. small measure of the state’s involvement in providing help for its citizens; 2. inviolability of private property vs. state’s activities in public interest; 3. woman’s reproductive rights (including the right to choose abortion) vs. the right of a foetus to life, 4. right to euthanasia, 5. legal vs. illegal means used by citizens trying to meet their requirements; 6. ecological vs. economic positions in state investments; 7. progressive vs. flat tax. Results that are analyzed are those in which statistically relevant differences between demographical characteristics of population, such as the level of education, age, gender, nationality, religion, income, the size of settlement as well as election preferences, were shown. In addition to the results obtained, focus is on the role of moral intuitions in judging polarized topics. The aim of this paper is to emphasize that in addition to rational arguments and deliberation, the way of their presentation, rhetoric, which can evoke in people different emotional reactions and thus also tendency to different answers are also very important for framing and solving social problems.
Sociológia 2010, Vol. 42 (No. 5: 564-583)